Friday, April 13, 2007

Welcome Race Fans

I received 3 tickets from a student for Thursday's events at Texas Motor Speedway. I've never been to a Nextel Cup or Busch series event so I didn't know what to expect. I went with my friend and his son and we arrived about 4:30pm and immediately I was shocked to see so many motor homes parked throughout the nearby fields. The Busch race isn't until Saturday and the Nextel Cup race isn't until Sunday. Any how the lady who gave me tickets did warn me that diehard fans show up as early as Monday to find a good place to party all week.

We were able to park way up front and we walked through many of the racer's trucks were they sell their goods. It was cool to browse basically with few people around. We mosied into the track area about 5:30 and the qualifying trials didn't start until about 6pm.

What I did see was a bunch of white people. Texas Motor Speedway is a place where they allow you to bring coolers full of beer into the seating area. I'm not talking about mini coolers that carry maybe 6 beers. I'm talking about the pull behind kind that can hold as many as 24 beers. WOW! If you are a beer drinker you can drink 12 beers at 50 cents a can at a total of $6 instead of shoveling out $6 a CAN! That is a savings of about $60 or more. In case you run out of beer they do have pints in plastic bottles for $6.

At 8pm they had something called Fandango which was for season ticket holders only. It was over hyped and maybe it was a fun event for diehard race fans who have been drinking beer out at their motor homes all day, but for the Nascar virgin like me it was easy to head for home a little early.

That said, it was a fun event even though it was an hour drive. I just can't imagine being there on Saturday or Sunday bumping elbow to elbow with sunburned white people who have drank an average of 13 beer BEFORE the race began. I do understand that it takes about 4-5 hours to exit the raceway after the race on Sunday. I'll watch it on TV thank you.

IF I ever do experience a Sunday Nextel Cup race I think I would arrive on Thursday night, pitch a tent and party with the rebels and stay until Monday morning when I can be on the highway 5 minutes after pulling off the parking lot.